Betrayal
by Perry Downing
Summary: *spoilers for TLJ trailer* Luke Skywalker is terrified of Rey and decides he won't fail the galaxy a second time. Kylo Ren is having none of it. Inspired by the TLJ trailer.


**A/N: SPOILERS for TLJ Trailer**

* * *

Knives. The water is like knives digging into her limbs. It's so cold, so alien. She'd loved water so much growing up, imagining the cool, blue sea. But not like this. He'd … he'd … no, it must be a mistake. This must be some form of training.

Descending, so quickly. No, not descending. She's being _pushed_. With the Force. She can't think, it's happening too fast. She kicks her legs, trying to find her way to the surface but she can't move past the invisible barrier.

Luke. Her teacher. The last Jedi. He'd …

No! He'll let her go, pull her out. He wouldn't do this. She just doesn't understand yet. Trust. She has to learn to trust.

Time is running out. She needs air. Luke, please, Luke!

It hurts, Maker, it hurts. All of it for nothing. Jakku. Fighting for her life in the snow. Nothing, for nothing.

 _Help. Help me. Please._

She'd denied the connection with everything she had, refusing. Closing. _Despising_.

But now she reaches. For _him_.

* * *

He's alone when he feels her.

 _Help. Help me. Please._

When he'd first felt the flutter of her in his head … no, somewhere deeper. She's in his bones. His blood. His soul? When the strange yet now so familiar sensations began, he'd shoved her away. He'd been recovering in body while knowing he would never be whole when she'd _invaded_ him.

Such a naive, curious thing, blundering along with no finesse. He'd felt nothing but contempt as he'd shied away. How dare she _infect_ him like this? He'd made sure it _hurt_ the first time he'd shut her out.

But then his own curiosity got the better of him. By then she'd figured it out. _Monster_. He hadn't disagreed with her.

She's in trouble.

He shouldn't care.

But he does, oh how he does.

Without deciding to, he's hurtling along their strange connection. Bond … bonded. _Bound_.

Kylo feels the sharp, pressing water and the Force holding her under. The Force? That doesn't make sense. No time to think about it, she's panicking. She can't focus.

 _I'm here. Listen to your heartbeat. Feel the Force coursing through you._

 _I can't!_

 _Yes, you can. Focus on me. There is no water, there is no time. Only you, me, and the Force._

 _Drowning. Suffocating. Help!_

 _Listen! Listen … You, me, the Force._

 _No! Not you, anyone but you._

 _You, me, the Force. With me Rey, say it with me._

 _...Yes. You, me, the Force._

 _Now, we push._

Together, moving as one being, they beat back the oppressive wall of the Force keeping her under. It shudders, then falls away like breaking glass.

 _Now kick_ , he urges and he gasps in relief as he feels her begin to move to the surface. He tries to suppress the burning in her lungs, give her more time.

* * *

Rey breaks through, pulling in great gulps of air, her arms flailing wildly. She feels the Force gathering near her again and her eyes move swiftly to the old man standing at the edge of the water, the Force tree's long shadow crossing him.

He emanates menace where before there had been grudging kindness. His eyes are cold and filled with a hatred she knows isn't for her.

But they're ready this time and they wave the attack away. _You, me, the Force_. He's still with her. In her. Kylo … There's a peace in her core that she's grateful she has no time to think about.

She makes it to the rocks lining the water and holds Luke's eyes as she pulls herself from the cove. She stands, her hair and clothes heavy. She's begun to shiver.

* * *

Kylo doesn't want to believe what he's seeing through her eyes. Luke Skywalker's bearing screams murder and Kylo can't quite comprehend how the man he once called uncle could be looking at Rey with such malevolence.

"You should have accepted your fate, Rey!" Luke growls.

"I don't understand!" she cries out.

"I can't let you live. Don't you see? I failed the galaxy once, I won't do it again."

 _Fight_ , Kylo whispers along their connection.

 _I can't_ , she begs in return. _Not him. Please. Not him._

Kylo stumbles and grabs the wall as a stream of her memories nearly overwhelm him. So much betrayal in such a short life. Then _hope_. For the first time in years, real hope as she'd approached the legend Luke Skywalker. Trust. Budding, fragile, but _true_.

He _knows_ she can do this. He knows she's stronger than his former mentor. When she'd channelled the Force on _Starkiller_ she had been _extraordinary_. If she doesn't find that again, Luke _will_ kill her, Kylo is certain of that. And that … he can't allow that to happen.

 _You can. You have to. I'm here._

* * *

 _You can. You have to. I'm here._

Why do his words center her? _Comfort_ her? She shouldn't want him anywhere near her, and yet …

But there's no more time to consider it as her _teacher_ advances on her. Her only answer. Her only hope. He's stalking towards her with death in each step, and oh stars, she can't do this!

Suddenly her mind is full of someone else's memories. His memories. Kylo Ren's memories. She sees herself through his eyes, wielding the saber she's not sure is her's as she swings it hard against that crackling red abomination she can never stop seeing in her dreams. But her face … she didn't know she could look like that. She's fierce, focused, deadly. _Beautiful_.

Is this what he saw?

 _Yes. You are_ so _strong, Rey. You can do this. Now fight!_

Power, raw molten power floods her then and with a feral scream she gathers the Force and pushes Luke back.

The old man is on his back, stunned for a moment. Then he looks up at her and snarls, "This is not going to go the way you think."

A wave of the Force nearly knocked her off her feet, but somehow Kylo saw it coming and her hand had shot out, blocking the attack. She knows she did it herself, he's not in control, yet somehow his thoughts are moving almost as quickly as her own.

But Luke is now again moving towards her, and his Force pushes come fast and furious. She's barely keeping ahead of them. Oh, Maker, now he has her cornered. She looks around wildly, but there's nowhere to go. She's going to die.

 _No!_

The thought is so fierce, so primal that she stumbles.

"I know you didn't ask for this. But you've left me with no choice," Luke says with something akin to regret.

Rey backs away until she feels rock against her back.

Trapped. This is it. Before it's begun, before finding ...

 _Jump_! Kylo's demand is frantic.

She looks up and she sees it. A ledge, narrow, but there. She's never used the Force to move herself before …

 _Jump! I've got you._

No more time for thinking.

 _I've got you. Trust me._

Trust him? She shouldn't, but she _does_. She bends her knees and pushes off, screaming as she flails through the air, landing hard on her front. Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods.

She lifts her head and there's an opening into the caves. Maybe … maybe she can lose Luke in the narrow crevasses. This, this she knows how to do in her sleep.

She looks over her shoulder and sees Luke preparing to follow her.

 _Go! Go now!_

Rey pulls herself up and scrambles through the narrow entrance.

* * *

She's getting tired as she pulls herself deeper and deeper into the seemingly endless caves and Kylo is getting worried. He's already on his way to the hangar. He's a two hour jump from her. He's known where she was for weeks now, stealthily hiding that information from the Supreme Leader.

He's made sure to be near, not really knowing why. Now he does. He never should have trusted her with _him_.

After so many long nights of denial, it's almost a relief to admit that he cares. That she _matters_. To him.

Fleetingly, he wonders just how deep that caring goes.

* * *

 _I'm coming, stay safe, I'm coming._

She's getting cold. Dangerously cold. And all of her hopes are pinned on a patricidal maniac who apparently lives in her head.

 _I heard that._

 _Good._

Rey thinks Luke has given up, unable to navigate the caves as she can. She's tempted to start making her way back out, but she can't know if Luke will be waiting for her.

The first person she's trusted since she was a little girl tried to kill her and her sworn enemy is racing to her rescue. Nothing makes sense any longer and she just wishes she was in her AT-AT. It was a brutal, small life, but it was on her terms.

But no, instead she's in a small alcove, holding herself in a tight little ball, trying to conserve her body heat. Of course she had to be _wet_. Her teeth chatter and she waits.

* * *

Kylo wants to talk with her, comfort her while time drags, but he doesn't know what to say. Everything he knows about her is stolen or painful. Tell me about your horrific childhood. So the Millenium Falcon can really move, right? He stays silent.

It hurts though. She's in so much pain, the sharp sting of betrayal and broken hope so jagged along her dreams. If only he could remember how to be gentle.

* * *

She feels as Kylo's ship approaches. It's time. She begins the circuitous trek back out of the caves. Years of navigating the decaying carcasses of Star Destroyers make it easy for her to remember each turn.

* * *

Kylo decides not to hide his Force signature. He wants _his uncle_ to know he's coming.

After landing his TIE, he trudges up to the caves, Rey guiding him. She's almost to the entrance and Kylo comes around an outcropping to find Skywalker sitting on a rock, a strange, gnarled tree to his left. He's right between Kylo and where Rey will emerge.

The man he once loved sits with his head bowed, his shoulders stooped. Kylo wonders if he should just kill him, get it over with.

 _No!_

 _No? He tried to kill you._ Kylo has killed for far less. This man threatened what is his. He may not understand much of what's driving him forward, but he does know that.

 _Please. Don't kill him._

Then Luke raises his head and his eyes are … defeated. "It's fitting, really …" Luke says so quietly Kylo can barely hear him.

Kylo cocks his head in query but doesn't say anything.

Luke sighs deeply. "That you would come for her. I thought, once, that perhaps there was a way, a way to stop the dark from taking everything … but no. It's time."

Then Luke stands and waves his hand towards the strange tree. Within moments it's engulfed in flames. As the flames reach the last branches, Rey stumbles out of the caves.

"No!" she cries, running to the tree, but she can't get very close. "The books! We have to save the books!"

Luke looks at her sadly. "Rey … it's over."

"But … the history of the Jedi … thousands of years …" Rey gasps out.

Skywalker had found them? After all this time, he'd actually found them? Kylo finds he too wants to save them. He may not believe in the Jedi ways any longer, but, well … he's not really sure what he believes now.

"No. It's time for the Jedi to end," Luke says with finality. Then he turns and begins to walk towards the highest point of the island. He pauses as he nears Rey. She shrinks back.

Luke's voice is hollow when he says, "You need not fear me. I have failed."

Rey watches until Luke is out of sight, then she slowly turns towards Kylo.

She's filthy, her hair an impossible mess. Her eyes, though ... they make him feel exposed and seen in a way he doesn't understand. Something catches in Kylo's chest. Something deep. Something good. Something _permanent_.

Hesitantly, he approaches her. Neither say a word as he draws close.

All around them, sparks fall.

Kylo reaches out a trembling hand.

 _Trust me._

 _I do._

Nothing has ever felt as right as her hand in his.

* * *

A/N: Quick little fic, non-beta'd. I just _had_ to write something after the trailer. Thank you for reading!


End file.
